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Published: November 25th 2010
The routine was early morning drives, afternoon swims / naps, and evening drives. Friday started this trend for us, we were up and out of the lodge by 7am. We saw on this day; Wildebeest, Lions(which were being lazy and just lying under a tree), Elephants, Impala, Warthog, White Rhino, Guinea Foul, Kudu and Baboons. The morning drive break was for coffee with Amerula and rusks. Mid-day got to around 112F degrees, Sam and I decided we were going to try and stay up so we went for a swim and then took a shower in our outdoor shower! We however did end up taking naps, being out and about in that heat is really draining. We set off for our evening drive around 4:30, it was still hot as hell out. Aj(our ranger/guide) had just gotten us all set up with drinks and set out the snacks for our drink break when we heard the strangest noise from behind us. At first I thought it was Aj trying to call something then I heard him say, time to pack up we have a herd of Elephants headed straight at us! Sam and I were told to get
into the truck, and the drinks and snacks were quickly packed up. It was hard to see them at first because we were looking into the sun setting, but we could hear them and see a vague shadow movement every now and then. Once it was dusk we were able to get a good look at them up close. One was one to two yards away from the back of the truck, it would take a few quick steps towards us and Aj would pull away a bit, he said that the elephant was playing with us. It was exciting and a bit nerve wracking at the same time since Sam and I were sitting in the back! I could have sat and watched and listened to the elephants all night, it was the most magical thing I have ever experienced, they are such beautiful, peaceful and awe inspiring creatures. We did eventually have to leave cause the heard was surrounding us slightly which could get dangerous. At that point we got a call from back at the lodge, they had just seen a lion at the watering hole and so we set off to see if we could find
it! Driving once the sun has gone completely down is exciting! You can’t see much and Aj swings a big spotlight back and forth so that we can catch a glimpse of an eye if anything is near. We never did find the lion but it was exciting anyways. Nan made wonderful chicken curry and we feasted like kings. Sam and I were the first to go to bed since the next day was to be even earlier than this one.
Saturday we were up at 4:50am… We had to leave early because we were going to a large watering hole at the other end of the game reserve. When we arrived at the watering hole we pulled up to multiple trucks, including medical and a camera crew, as well as a helicopter. They were getting ready to put a tracker into a White Rhino’s horn that was just walking into the clearing. Due to all the activity there not many other animals were around, not like usual as we were told. We decided to go find a shady spot and have our coffee and rusks while they took care of business. After they left we drove back over
to the watering hole which was now packed with Zebra, Wildebeest, and a few warthogs. We sat there for quite a while and just watched as they drank and played around in and near the water. This day we saw; Kudu, Elephant, Springbok, Impala, Steenbok, Zebra, Wildebeest, Mongoose, White Rhino, Warthog, Baboons, Giraffe, and once again many many birds. I believe that after this day we were up to over 70 different types of birds. The rest of the afternoon we were all so tired from the longest drive yet and the heat, that we spent the rest of the day at the lodge. Sam, Dad, and I swam and Dad jumped in not thinking about how shallow it was and hurt the bottom of his feet/ankles.
Sunday it was expected to rain but we woke up to another hot day! It was another early morning to start, Dad was staying behind cause of his feet and Sam decided she wanted to sleep in also. It was a pretty quiet morning to start but then as we were driving up a path to a different watering hole we came upon a huge group of Baboons! We drove through them
and then parked near the water with a good view to see them make their way over. We started counting all the babies and stopped at 25! Mom said she was trying to count the total amount and lost track at 50, there were just so many it was so amazing! After that we headed back and had breakfast. Sam and I swam again and then it started to rain a bit so we went inside and read which was wonderful as well. Once it stopped we decided to still do an evening drive which everyone went on. The day animals were; Baboons, Elephant, Steenbok, Lion, Impala, Red Hartebeest, Gemsbok(Oryx)
Monday morning we woke up to a cool and cloudy day. It looked as though it would rain all day but it never did. We had 2 exciting run ins with big cats this day. The first was a lion that came up to the watering hole just off the back porch of the lodge while we were eating breakfast! It was really awesome, she didn’t stay long and kept one eye on us the whole time. The second was during our evening drive, the sun had set and
we were heading back to the lodge. We were passing a rocky hill and Aj pointed his spot light up on the hill where he had seen a glint of eyes! Then we heard a loud GRRRRRRRAAAAAAWWWWWWWWRRRRRR! It was a loud guttural heart pumping primal growl! Words cannot express the sound and reciprocating feeling of excitement and fear! It sounded as though it was right behind the truck, I turned to Sam “What was that?” She thought someone was playing a joke like I did the first night we heard the elephants. Aj was on it pointing his light high up on the hill we saw 2 leopards walk through the light! They were so far from us and yet every time we heard their growl it sounded as though they were right next to us! It seemed that the more we shone the light on them the further down the hill towards us they came, but really it was that the female was finding a hiding place and the male was following. At one point we lost where they were and we heard the growl and then we heard something walking our direction slowly getting closer. My heart was
pumping and my adrenalin going. The closer it got the more nervous I got but what walked out of the tall grass just in front of the truck was a Brown Hyena! Woooh! We spotted the Leopards again but we did not have a very good view of them obscured by the trees, grass, boulders and darkness of night. We stayed for quite a while listening and searching with our eyes. Aj said they were mating and that is why they were growling so much! It was so awesome! Our animal totals for the day were; Impala, Red Hartebeest, Wildebeest, Zebra, Elephant, Giraffe, Kudu, Lion, Turtle, Jackal, Brown Hyena, and Leopard.
Tuesday was our last day, it was cool and cloudy again. We were on the search for Water Buffalo. If we could find them we would have seen The Big 5 in just one week! That does not happen often. The morning ride was unsuccessful, we saw Lion, Waterbuck, Elephants, Kudu, Impala, Ditka, and Mongoose. That afternoon it warmed up a bit so Sam and I went and had a short swim. We were sitting outside reading when a large group of Elephants showed up to our small
watering hole! There were at least 17 of them including a small little baby!! It was so cute rolling in the mud and getting stuck I have never seen anything so cute in my life! Our evening drive we set out on a mission, our last chance to see the Water Buffalo. Aj called the other rangers over the radio and we were lucky! A ranger that we had guided over to the Leopards the night before had found the herd of buffalo! It took us a while to find the spot but we finally found them!
Overall it was an amazing week, we saw The Big 5 and many other animals and birds. I think we identified a total of 115 different birds on our trip. The heat was stifling, the flies could drive any sane person crazy and there were large spiders everywhere BUT it was such an Epic experience, one for the bucket list for sure! We were treated to 5 star luxury thanks to Chris and Nan and it was sad to say goodbye to them and The Bush and the animals as well as the pure feeling of relaxation and excitement at the same
time!
I have attached a video of the day that the Elephants came up to the watering hole by our lodge, I move around a bit in places but I’m still practicing with the video thing! If you watch the whole thing you will see the cutest thing ever at the end!
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Adriana
non-member comment
amazing!
Vanessa! this is probably my favorite blog entry. how amazing to see all those animals!! Thanks for the pics :) makes it seem like I'm seeing them too! can't wait for the next one! Happy Thanksgiving! :)